Laundry Alert Page

Project Proposal

Overview

Don't you just hate it when you walk all the way down to the laundry room to find every single machine in use? Our 'Laundry Alert Device' idea will bring a solution to this problem. Our idea consists of a device that will alert, through text message, a washing machine's user that his or her laundry is done. We believe our device will cut the waiting time by a significant amount. To meet this goal, we will be creating a device using a raspberry pi 0 and a vibration sensor. First the user will scan a qr code link them to a website where they will interact and express that they have started their laundry load. The pi will use the vibration sensor to determine when the laundry machine has finished the load. When the load is finished, using Twilio API, the pi will send a text message to the user telling them that their laundry has been finished.

Link to weekly log

Team Members

• Ezra Blair
• Young Wang
• Billy Gilbert Habimana Cyusa
• Ellen Dai (TA)
• Jim Feher (Instructor)

Objectives

Hardware

• Using vibration sensors to determine completion of a washing cycle

Software

• Distinguish between vibration and no motion
• Get program to successfully send sms messages
• Get program to send sms to a different specific user every time (noted by the form)
• Receiving the phone number
• Set up a web server
• Get a custom domain name
• Create a form on the site
• Use form information to send text message upon washing completion
• Link to a QR code to the site

Challenges

• Deciding Interface (Website or Self Contained Server)
• Connectivity to private networks
• Finding out the vibration pattern and level of the washing machine and making the Pi recognize it
• Figuring how to integrate Twilio into the interface
• Figuring out how to exclude the vibration noise of other washing machines
• Finding a way to demonstrate the project

Gantt Chart

Budget

• | Digital Vibration Sensor SW-420
• Raspberry Pi Zero W
• Twilio API
• | A/D converter
• | Analog Vibration Sensor